A Design Science Approach to Interactive Greenhouse Climate Control using Lego Mindstorms for Sensor- Intensive Prototyping

A Design Science Approach to Interactive Greenhouse Climate Control using Lego Mindstorms for Sensor- Intensive Prototyping

Author:

Ulslev Pedersen, Rasmus; Clemmensen, Torkil

Abstract:

In this paper we present a case study of early prototyping work performed within a
Danish advanced technology project. We specifically investigate the problems and
issues related to throw-away prototypes in sensor-intensive systems. An important
criterion is to record and perhaps later reproduce the identified contributions of the
throw-away prototypes, and to this end we use the educational version of Lego
Mindstorms NXT. To achieve methodological rigor we have used the Design Science
Framework by Hevner et. al. It allows us to focus on the prototyping effort (called the
design cycle) without letting go of either the relevance or rigor related to the project.
We relate the case study to a Human Work Interaction Design (HWID) framework for
the use of interactive, sensor-intensive prototypes to develop interactive greenhouse
climate management systems. By applying guidelines suggested in design science to the
case studied, we identify a number of interactive prototypes that successively address
core issues in this particular setting. Finally, the problems and issues pertaining to this
setting is presented and identified. The main contribution of this paper is that it, by
pointing out problems and issues related throw-away prototyping with sensor-intensive
systems, extends the design cycle of the original design science framework. This is
determined to be a necessary step in order to address the inherent multi-disciplinarily of
sensor-intensive HWID systems.